Bukayo Saka says he is untroubled by the rising tide of criticism against Arsenal and wants to do one thing and one thing alone – win. The winger marked his 300th appearance for the club with the only goal in Wednesday’s 1-0 victory at Brighton, which moved Arsenal seven points clear of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League. City have a game in hand.
It was an emotional night at the Amex Stadium. Fabian Hürzeler had complained about Arsenal’s timewasting beforehand, the Brighton manager raged about it during the match – as did the home crowd – and he signed off with another blast, saying Arsenal had again taken advantage of the inability of referees to combat delaying tactics.
Arsenal have felt a number of pot-shots from opponents in recent weeks, including a TikTok clip from Wolves after the 2-2 draw between the clubs at Molineux. It highlighted Arsenal’s game management in unforgiving style. There has also been plenty of grumbling in general about the ethics and aesthetics of Arsenal’s power at set pieces.
“We don’t listen to that stuff,” Saka said. “I don’t see it. I don’t read it. It is not beneficial in any way. We just want to continue going our way – winning. People will say whatever they want to say. Whether we play the most beautiful football, or if we score from a set piece, they will still talk. For us, we just want to win games and we are getting closer to the end of the season.”
According to Opta, the total time of Arsenal’s restarts against Brighton was 30min, 51sec – their most in a league game this season. Brighton’s restarts were 16:07 – their fifth-lowest. The average time of Arsenal’s restarts was 31.4sec – their joint 12th-highest in a league game this season. The ball-in-play percentage was 53.5% – Arsenal’s ninth-highest.
Saka has found his own stats crunched – his goals and assists are down significantly on the previous three seasons. His goal against Brighton was his sixth of the league campaign and ninth in all competitions. He has five assists in the league and seven overall. “As an attacker, you want to contribute more sometimes on the stats sheet but at the same time, you want to win, too,” he said. “It is a balance. Let’s keep going like this and if we finish in this position, I will be happy.”
Saka felt his spirits soar after the full-time whistle at Brighton when he and his teammates approached the away end and the news filtered through that City had drawn at home against Nottingham Forest. “As we went to clap the fans they burst out into another roar and I could tell something had gone on in the other games and then Mikel [Arteta] came and told me that City had drawn 2-2,” Saka said.
“We are definitely building momentum. We have won three massive games in a row – Spurs, Chelsea and Brighton. We are excited and feeling confident.”